The Latest from the WSOPE
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
The organisers had scheduled ten levels of play but by the time tenth place elimination occurred on Day 2 of this year's WSOPE €1,100 NLHE re-entry event just over eight levels had been completed.
Starting out the day with 85 players in the running for a slice of the €632,640 prizepool, the field was eventually whittled down to a mere 72 when the first payouts occurred. Indeed, after the double elimination of Aido Sergio and Trevor Bartlett (these two eventually chopped the 72nd place prize), the surviving players were catapulted into the money.
That momentum saw a flurry of eliminations, including Matthew Ashton (63rd - €1,930), Dominik Nitsche (55th - €1,930), Sam Holden (38th - €2,341), and by the time night had fallen just a few players remained.
With the end of the session nigh and everyone looking towards today's finale a lapse of concentration saw Marc Conti lose his chance at glory. After moving all-in over the top of Henrik Johansson's raise with pocket nines, Conti was left praying for a miracle when the board ran out 2s Qh Js to give Johansson two pair.
Despite his calls for a nine the poker gods weren't willing to indulge his request and after the Qd landed on the turn Conti could only watch in disappointment as the meaningless 4c on the river sent the pot to his rival.
With that Conti headed for the rail in tenth place to collect his €9,975 consolation prize whilst the remaining nine players bagged up their chips in preparation for the final table.
Leading the way as the lights went down on Day 2 was Conti's executioner Johansson (587,000 chips), just ahead of Daniel Weinman (408,000 chips) and Daniel Laidlaw (357,000 chips).
Event #2 Final Table Chip Counts:
Henrik Johansson - 587,000
Daniel Weinman - 408,000
Daniel Laidlaw - 357,000
Adriano Torre-Grossa - 155,500
Jean-Philippe Tuffery - 142,000
Jose Obadia - 119,000
Andrei Konopelko - 101,000
Yaniv Jacque Botbol - 85,000
Serge Ekert - 28,500
Event #3 Recap
While Event #2 was entering its final stages the opening session of the €5,300 Mixed Max event saw a string of pros take to the felt in search of a bracelet.
Indeed, throughout the day the likes of Phil Ivey, Jason Mercier, John Juanda and Jonathan Duhamel were all part of the 135-strong field contesting Day 1.
By the time things had wrapped up for the night and just 67 were left with at least a smattering of chips in front of them it was Matt O'Donnell who led the way. Having eliminated a number of players, including recent WSOP bracelet winner Loni Harwood, O'Donnell was able to bag 73,425 chips to finish ahead of such luminaries as Jason Duval (68,500) Phil Hellmuth (55,250), Ivey (51,300) and Dan O'Brien (46,475).
Today's session will play down to 16 players before things come to a conclusion on Thursday.